Clunes is a small town in country Victoria with a lot of bookshops, and is the first Booktown in the Southern Hemisphere to be recognised by the International Organisation of Booktowns. Instead of explaining the origins of the Booktown phenomena, I’m going to pop a few links below for interested parties. For everyone else, what you need to know is that in addition to the six or so permanent bookshops in the town on the festival weekend they close off a few streets in Clunes and booksellers from around the country set up stalls and take residence in the town hall hall, bank, garage and other assorted areas to sell their wares. There are book signings, author talks, performances, discussion panels, and of course plenty of plenty of books to be seen all around.

We arrived in town at about 10.45am and things were already going strong, with the festival having started at 10, and we were lucky to get a car spot within a ten minute walk to the entrance. Any later and we would have had to park halfway across town. There was a line about twenty people deep of people waiting to purchase entry to the festival, but it moved swiftly, with festival staff/volunteers moving along the line and selling badges instead of waiting for the whole line to move forward through the welcome area/ticket desk.

We started at the Town Hall, where Mum had a chat to some book restorers, and made Dad buy an archive box to house the 120 year old Bible we have lying around until we can get a quote on repairing it. Currently, the front cover has completely detached itself from the spine, and one of the brass clips is missing. There are also insect holes in the first few pages, which is a shame because it is gorgeous. We then continued down the hallway to the first of many book vendors.

Due to the fact that the vendors were jammed into almost every indoor space available (and quite a few outdoors, though under marquees, thankfully as it had rained heavily early in the morning) many of the spaces were cramped, a feeling not helped by the fact that there were so many other book browsers around. I am sure the festival would have made it’s estimation of twenty-thousand visitors easily.

I found a few interesting things I thought Dad would like in that first section (and a super secret present I did end up buying for someone else) including old football match catalogues, a book of old movie posters, a John Wayne adventure book, and some phantom comics. None of which he let me buy, but I regret now that I didn’t take the opportunity to double back at some point when his back was turned – especially as he has now said he would have liked one of the biographies he saw but didn’t buy.

The booktown festival is a real gem for book collectors, and I was interested in seeing the prices asked for different editions of books, and occasionally overhearing people asking vendors if they had particular items in stock. I think I would really need to do some research into prices, devaluation of books, and maintenance before I even thought about doing any serious book collecting. At the moment I am just happy to keep growing my shelves of recreational reading – though I was awfully tempted by a couple of ‘Anne of Green Gables’ editions I came across, and there was Enid Blyton everywhere.

It wasn’t until an hour an a half later, and after a bottle of creamy soda and a lemon slice, that I found anything for myself. Herein lies one of my only gripes with the whole day: fantasy and science fiction were incredibly scarce and under-represented by the used-book vendors. Admittedly, I did not visit every single vendor, as we weren’t walking around with enough methodology for me to keep track of everywhere we had been, but it was a bit disappointing to see crime, romance, adventure and of course scads of general literature, but barely any of my own favourite genres. Maybe fantasy and science fiction readers hoard their books more, and so stock was low?

Anyway, I did find an almost new copy of Jay Kristoff’s ‘Endsinger’ which I snapped up. I’d read the first book in the trilogy and had been meaning to read the rest, so now having ordered copies of those first two books to complete the set I have no excuse not to do so. After watching a street performer for a while and rummaging through several other stores, I also bought ‘The Snow Child’ and an anthology of dog stories for Mum. I had previously thought about borrowing ‘The Snow Child’ from the library but wondered if it would be too depressing. I guess I’ll find out.

I also visited the RSL, trying to remember the name of the library patron I had talked to who said to come and say hello if I visited. I failed, but am sure word will get back that ‘someone from Vision Australia wanted to say hi’ to the lady after I spoke to a few others. I also briefly caught up with a lady who I went through my undergraduate degree with, who is an illustrator and bookseller. It was lovely to catch up, however I always feel quite embarrassed about not writing more when I catch up with people from the Professional Writing and Editing course, especially when they are so lovely as to tell you how talented they think you are. I took a card and promised to keep in touch, which I fully intend to do.

I made a point to visit the small publishers attending, though unfortunately noting really grabbed my attention from the titles available. One of the publishers was sending someone out in medieval costume to generate interest, which I think was a great move, especially when her opening line was ‘are you interested in fantasy?’. It’s the kind of self promotion I admire, but have a tendency to avoid when I see it, which I’ll explain in a moment because…

The last place we visited before we left included a stall with authors selling their own work. I was initially drawn in by big fantasy cover banners, but walked by without investigating, having overheard that at least one of the people there was an author. I thought it would be extremely awkward to talk to someone if it turned out I wasn’t interested in their book once I had a look, which is the most likely outcome when I am asked to make a decision about purchasing something without prior knowledge of it – ask anyone, I’m a ditherer!

On the way back, Dad talked me into going and having a look at the stall and one of the authors immediately approached me with a friendly word and a well-practiced spiel about her novel. She was the only one of the three who wasn’t self-published, and at the time was standing, not sitting behind a table. She was lovely and personable, and the cover blurb of the book was well put together, but I was a bit hesitant about it because it mentioned ‘terrible choices and their consequences’ and really I am in the mood for lighter reading at the moment. Dad, however, decided to buy it for me. I admire the courage it would take to push your own work out like that, and though I didn’t end up approaching the other two authors I am sure they would be equally as passionate about their work, as I am myself when coaxed to talk about it.

I haven’t spoken about any of the author talks or discussion panels, because unfortunately this year there wasn’t anyone I was really keen on seeing and I didn’t have time to attend any of the more academic talks. Federation University was also heavily involved with the festival this year, with volunteers, but also roaming Shakespeare performers. The students were all really good, and I never knew whether to pay rapt attention to the performance, or just pretend random-Shakespeare was an ordinary event. Mum was pretty impressed with the caliber of the performances as well.

So there you have it. Booktown.

I really enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend going at least once for all book lovers. There seemed to be something there for everyone, even sword-making and hay mazes for the children. Just come prepared to apologise for bumping into strangers over and over again in the densely populated areas.

Zombies, zombies, zombies. The literary world may be overrun, but personally this is the first young-adult book I’ve read featuring the bitey undead. I must say, I liked this take on the trope. Benny Imura was barely a toddler when the world ended. His first memory is of his now-zombie father going after his mother, while his half-brother just runs, carrying Benny away forever. He hates them both: the zombie monsters, and the coward brother. When Benny turns 15, his rations will be cut in half if he doesn’t find a job. Finally, exhausting all other options, Benny has no choice but to apprentice in the family business: zombie hunting. He loves the idea of killing zombies, but isn’t keen on doing it with his brother – both attitudes which are soon put to the test when he has to face the realities of life outside the protective walls of the town.

Maberry’s zombie-mythology is absolutely brilliant, and though the zombies never lose their inherent danger or scariness he allows the reader to pity the creatures for the humans they had once been. This is a crucial part of Benny’s growth as a character as well, and though the novel is action packed, it really is about his emotional journey and the choices he makes about the kind of person he wants to be. To get back to the action though, there were some really dynamic scenes, with my favourite being the horse charge – from my experience you don’t often get them in zombie stories and it was just one of those small things which add to the uniqueness of the novel.

Were there some aspects of the novel I thought could have been executed better? Definitely. For instance, a clear idea of Tom’s age earlier in novel would have eased confusion over why Benny was so convinced he was a coward for not saving their mother. What flaws the novel does have are easily overlooked though, and I enjoyed the read very much. I’d certainly recommend it for anyone looking for a mixed-genre adventure.

Today was my LAST DAY. I took my backpack for the only time, because I’d bought a huge box of chocolates for the team and it wouldn’t fit in my handbag. I also thought it was a good idea because an acquaintance was trying to get us tickets to the BBC Proms and my shoulders had started screaming at me with the handbag over the last few days. Understandable; I’d been putting a lot in the bag, and walking a fair distance with it.

Lynn stopped me before taking me down to Rod in sound and vision, and gave me a present for my friend, which I’d been debating buying. That was just about the sweetest thing ever. I mean, she doesn’t even know my friend. I chose this moment to hand over the chocolates, also so people could have some for morning tea. When Lynn did take me across, it was with the stipulation that I be back by 12 because we were going to do lunch.

Sound and Vision has a small team of four people, two of whom were on leave when I visited, and Rod gave me an overview of the services before sending me to have a look at the practical work. It used to be the national sound archive, which should give you a small indication of the size of its holdings, which go all the way back to shellac records, and even I think the occasional wax tube recording. Unfortunately, there is no legal deposit system for audio/visual content and it is all voluntary deposit, or library purchased material which does mean gaps in the collection occur.

Most of the content is audio, with only 5-10% being visual content. The collection includes all types of music, play recordings, interviews, radio shows and plays, oral histories, recorded documentaries and much more content. The service also serves as an access point for BBC radio broadcasts, as the library has a partnership with them; however the items need to be requested to be delivered to the library from the BBC which reportedly can take quite a while.

Some transcripts of material are available, and there is a growing store of digital content available via on-site computers. This kind of access is especially important when unique/fragile items are concerned as it is better to migrate them to digital formats and preserve the original item in storage. Certainly limiting the access to on-site computers may be frustrating to some patrons, but it is one way to protect the security of the recordings.

The listening and viewing services themselves are located in the Rare Books and Music reading room, which I remembered from my time there early in my placement. It is an appointment based system, as there are a limited number of carrels set aside for use, and a limited amount of equipment and staff to run it.

Where content hasn’t been uploaded to digital storage, or burnt onto a CD, it is generally played in the control room/office and piped through to the reader’s carrel. There are only email and telephone appointments, as the team really needs time to prepare what the reader would like, and don’t want them booking an appointment online and just turning up. Before anything else, after all, they need to determine whether there are any restrictions on the items.

Rachel, the team member in the control room showed me all the equipment, including a shellac player, several record players, reel to reel players, Betamax, VHS, DVD and cassette players. There was one reader, so I also got to observe how the content is piped through, and that the reader can pick up a little red phone in the carrel which connects straight to the control room if they need something wound back a bit or stopped, or for the next item to be played. It is a pretty efficient set-up. I also got to see the reel to reel being loaded which is kind of cool.

Unfortunately technology doesn’t last forever, though some of the older stuff is holding up really well. Rachel was saying that when the department hears that a technology is being phased out, they buy several of those machines to make sure they have back-ups. I wish we had done that with our VHS player, then we wouldn’t have these family tapes that we’ll probably need to pay a lot of money to get migrated across to DVD or memory card.

After speaking about the sound and vision services, I asked Rachel how she got into the role. She’d been working as part of the welcome team during the restructure of the library, and took the opportunity to apply for advancement when it came along. She was glad she ended up in the sound and vision area, as it’s a job which challenges her – especially because they have to spend some time on the reference desks as well. She’s enthusiastic about possible advancements she could use this job for if she wished, stating it was broad enough that she could work with the BBC or their equivalent of ACMI.

I asked about specialisms, having gotten that question myself a few times, and Rachel had been casually interested in music before her appointment but agreed with what I had come to think about specialisms. You didn’t necessarily need to have one before you started a job, as long as you can be a specialist in finding things. This is good, because so far I’d have to say my specialism is ‘books I love’.

It was a very refreshing conversation, and perhaps I should have asked for more career advice during my placement. It’s hard though since I don’t have any specific need at the moment. I did try and ask everyone who I met how they got into the work they were doing where I could. I found the range of answers interesting, and hopeful. There is no set path to finding a vocation, and the way I find mine will be as unique as the others.

I quickly ran back upstairs in time for lunch, to find the team had chipped in and bought me a present. It was wrapped so nicely I didn’t want to open it, but did have a little peak inside. Everyone is so sweet.

So Lynn took myself and the two Pauls to lunch, and I’d already been told I wasn’t allowed to pay, so just put my hands up in surrender when the bill came. It was good food, and even better conversation.

After lunch I decided to go out on the science reference desk one more time, before going to the library’s Propagranda exhibition. I was there for about two hours, with Lynn and Paul, and then when Lynn left, with Leslie (and Paul). Unfortunately, there were no queries at all while I was there, so we had a big chat.

Eventually I headed off to the Propaganda exhibition, which took about twice as long as I was advised because I just found everything so interesting. As it approached 5 however I ducked into the store briefly to buy some chocolate for my parents and dashed upstairs.

I caught Lynn just as she was about to leave, and we had a bit of chat, which was also when my acquaintance texted me to say she had managed to wrangle music tickets for us. So I said my goodbyes, slowly, and after giving Paul a final handshake went to hand in my swipe-card.

All I can say is that it was good I had plans that night, because otherwise I would have felt very melancholy. Instead I listened to music in a gorgeous hall, and finished my packing before I put in some ear plugs and tried to catch some sleep.

I am so happy I didn’t talk myself out of asking about the placement, and so grateful to everyone who made it happen, and who went out of their way to take time from their work to show me what they do. I had a great time, and I really am more optimistic than ever about my future in the industry.

Well it’s taken about a year, but here is finally my first entry about my placement at the British Library. I really loved my time there, and though a lot has happened since it still feels like I was only there last week. Thanks for your patience.

Today was a pretty long day, with a lot of talking. I did take a fair amount of notes, but it was a case of information overload, and I don’t know that specific projects in the departments I was in are all too relevant as opposed to a general overview.

I started with the Electronic Services team, who sit kind of between the reading rooms and tech-support in the grand scheme of things. The department is heavily involved with the Explore the British Library catalogue, ordering systems, print services, user accounts, database subscription and management, IT testing, and training staff in new applications among other things. I spent some time with each member of the team, and each went over their area with me.

Sebastian is in charge of database licensing and testing. As well as checking all the database invoices and budget figures, he also deals with any database issues which arise from the reading rooms – access being the most common. Other database work includes managing/reporting broken links, and keeping statistics of data use.

Sebastian also explained the system behind patron printing accounts a little bit, and confirmed what I’d been hearing about its major problem being that Pharos (the printing system) is not as compatible with the other library systems as would be ideal – hence users needing to create a new log in. The printing system and printers themselves are actually on loan/lease from (and maintained by) an outside company so the situation is unlikely to change soon.

I spoke to Andy next, whose main responsibilities are book tracking, and handling problems with the software side of the book ordering system. He runs a report each morning which identifies miss-scanned items, and items which have gone missing ‘en-route’. I can’t recall with full accuracy what happens after this, but I think I remember that lists are sent to appropriate locations so people can conduct a physical search for items in their area. Once a year, a massive book recall report is generated, to gather items which staff may be holding for personal/professional use – perhaps beyond the allowable (6 month) lending period. Some staff have even had extended lending privileges removed as a result of this book recall.

Andy is also the person the reference desks call in the cases where an item appears on the catalogue, but needs to be split into orderable parts, or if there is another glitch. The first problem I witnessed was simply a click of the button for him to solve. He is also in charge of generating the report on registration and reader statistics.

Glen deals with the recent upgrading process for reader registration, and the basket function which allows a reader to store catalogue entries for ordering at a later date. Glen’s biggest project at the moment is handling the integration of all of the newspaper content arriving from Colindale. The items should already be catalogued, but their internal links and ordering systems need to be created and tested. Having been to Colindale and seen a portion of the collection, I can see this is a massive task.

I was only given a short overview of what the other two members of the team do, which is more involved with the website, and maintaining internal links and lists of resources etc.

Side projects are a common aspect of everyone’s position (a recent example being the redo of the Frequently Asked Questions), and they have a rota to handle /respond to input generated from the ‘feedback’ button on the catalogue because it is not something anyone enjoys.

After all this information, I was impressed by how much work these people do, and how integral they are to the smooth running of the reading rooms. I wonder if this is appreciated by the people working on the reference desk when they call about an issue.

I had a bit of lunch – and boy, was I sick of sandwiches! – and then it was off to Digital Scholarship for an hour or two.

I have to admit, I questioned the meaning of the department title, just to make sure I understood. This isn’t a grant offering body, it is a department concerned with scholarship in a digital environment, or using digital resources. They are concerned with producing digital content, integrating and presenting it in the best way possible to enable ease of use and continued interest in the collection. The collection/work encompasses maps, drawings, visual arts, sound and vision, and moving image.

The department constantly has an abundance of projects on the go, with monthly progress reports. Like the Picture Library, curators can pitch new digitisation projects to the department after filling out a proposal. Another team entirely handles digital migration.

I spoke to two staff members about specific projects, but at least with one, things are a bit hush-hush, so I’ll remain quiet on that front, except to say that it involves digitization on a massive scale.

The second person I spoke to, Mohinder (probably not the correct spelling), works to increase engagement of researches to digital content. People can do a lot of things with digital content which they wouldn’t be able to with physical, and to capitalise on this, Mohinder has introduced competitions to encourage participation. Academics were encouraged to submit ideas for new uses the collection could be put to, and this year 2 winners were picked to work closely with developers and the digital scholarship team to realise their product or software idea. Expenses paid, and with a cash prize up for grabs.

Again, everyone in this office seemed very passionate about advocating for the library, and advancing services.

A bit of a sad day today as it hit me that I only have two days left after this. I’ve just gotten my balance it seems, and now I’ll be leaving. I’ll actually miss everyone – strange as it seems after spending most of my time outside of the department. Without a question though, everyone has been lovely. They all have a smile or nod for you. People who I’ve shadowed with have been extraordinarily willing to take time out of their day to show me their work and collection – as well as show me back to where I need to be. One person even helped make the cafeteria experience a lot less stressful just by stopping and asking if I was alright and did I need a card because they don’t take money (I did, thankfully, as Lynn had set me up with one, but I have no doubt this person would have offered to get my lunch otherwise).

Anyway, this morning I came in earlier than my schedule said, and went out onto the science desk with Lynn. Apart from a log in query it was extremely quiet, even when Leslie arrived, and we ended up talking about transport issues, and movies.
After a break for some food, I had a tour of the conservation centre, which was absolutely fascinating. And unfortunately we were moving so fast that I didn’t have time to make many notes and have to rely solely on memory.

The conservation Centre Leader, Robert, met me at the entrance to the conservation centre, which is one of those areas like the basements where you need special clearance to enter past the welcome area. He showed me some of the stamps on display for creating engravings in leather covers (they have a specific name, but I can’t remember it) and in themselves they are impressive objects. Also in the entranceway he told me about a particular ‘cursed’ volume which had been crafted so beautifully it sold for a huge amount of money, but was lost the way to the buyer as it was being shipped on the Titanic. Not long after, in an unrelated event, the maker drowned himself, saving another swimmer. The volume was remade, but lost again in a fire. Luckily, the third time was the charm.

Robert explained that the conservation jobs are not assigned or decided upon by cost, but by man hours available. He keeps a running list of all the budgeted hours for the department. Curators put in bids for items to chosen for conservation, which must include information such as the value of the item, its use, rarity and condition.

Robert spoke to me about the structure of the team, saying that each supervisor had a particular area to look after e.g. accounts, public outreach, security. Robert was more on the accounts side of things (though naturally there is bleed-through, and all members of the team seem to do some hands on conservation work) and he showed me both the systems used for tracking jobs and signing them in and out, as well as how he tallied up the hours each project took.

Robert also showed me some examples of the bids curators sent in, and the queries that went back and forth about them, along with some images of the items in question. He also showed me a few of the items that were on his desk, either completed or needing work. Part of this particular section of the tour meant that I got an explanation of some of the different rebinding and boxing options. Among the things I do remember from this chat is that often archival cream paper is insert between or around the fragile content. This paper is Ph neutral, with a high cotton content and comes in several weights, all super-fine. We looked at a book where some of the pages had been resewn and I honestly couldn’t see anything along the join, which is pretty amazing.

We talked a bit about security, and Robert pointed out the locked cupboards along the room for storing items which have been/will be repaired. These cupboards are also fireproof. The conservation lab has a storage area protected with gas as well, so if a fire does break out it can be chemically suppressed.

The rest of the tour was walking around the lab. Among other things, I got shown the baths used for cleaning or liquid-treating items. I still can’t quite get my head around that concept, to be honest. I saw the stamping workshop, and how the gold imprints are applied. Robert dumped some gold in my hand and it got all over everything.

We spoke a little about the requirements to become a conservator, where-in I admitted that it interested me, but that I didn’t think I had the right type of brain to get through the pre-requisite science. Robert himself had entered through an apprenticeship some 40 odd years beforehand (precise year-span subject to faulty memory) and hadn’t had a chemistry background, however having done the job for so long he knows exactly what he needs to.

After lunch, I had the afternoon in the picture studios. The department has what was described to me as a three-pronged approach, which makes sense when you know that it is one of the only commercial departments of the library.
The department is comprised of studio, picture library, and administration. The department is responsible for commissioned image digitisation (patrons and companies requesting images to keep), as well as for the picture library which I have to admit I never explored in detail.

Administration is in charge of approving or denying requests (usually down to copyright – if consumer signs a form saying the item is for personal use they can usually have 10%), checking whether there are already surrogates available, and handling invoices. The services are remote, so copies can be ordered from anywhere.

The studio and photographers are responsible for digitising the content. I’d seen a little of this in the Qatar project, so the technological set-up was familiar, however it was still interesting to see it again. The photographers work with raw image data so they can make adjustments without compromising the integrity of the image. This large file size is also why I was told that most of the commissions are posted on CD or similar to the clients, as many emails would crash if the full file size was sent through them.
We had a bit of a chat with two of the photographers, who showed me some of the things they had been working on. What stuck in my mind was the fact that the safety of the items always came first, and that the photographers would consult with, or ask for conservator help if they were unsure about the durability or handling of an item.

The image library/lab serves the library internally, as well as catering to outside clients and sometimes curators will send items down to be digitised. Other times, admin will request access to an item so it can be added to picture library.

The picture library is also making links with outside agencies, and doesn’t just contain images from the British Library, instead building partnerships whereby they distribute images from other collections – and have their images distributed overseas by some other agencies in the same manner.

After the brief tour, Sandra (the Picture Library Manager) had a talk with me about the aims and goals for the picture library. These could be oversimplified to ‘retain current useage patterns, and attract more national and international business’. It was pretty interesting to see the library from a commercial perspective and I was fairly familiar with the promotional theories and activities Sandra employed, such as networking during business conventions and balancing prices with user expectations.

I was very impressed with how passionate Sandra was about crusading for the Picture library, and how she was able to translate every idea she had, or heard about, into something which could benefit the department. She is also a huge believer in nurturing students, and wants to give them the opportunities to gain the experience they need to find a position in the workplace. In this fashion she has gone out of her way to contact photography and marketing schools. Sandra definitely understands the barrier that many face when they exit a degree, and I admire her pro-activity in supplying a means of support for those students needing some help. Many people don’t work in an apprentice-based industry, and yet employers still look for experience which can be hard to come by.

Before I left, Sandra gave me a few of the items they keep around for conferences and things, which was really nice.

I had my presentation today, so of course I just about worked myself into a panic attack before I even arrived in the morning – and the presentation wasn’t until the afternoon!

Luckily I had finished all my notes etc and just needed to print them out, as well as adding a few extra citations which we decided to provide as a handout as Lynn said often people would like to have extra information to take with them. Powerpoint of course cut off the bottom of half my notes, so I ended up having to copy and paste them into a Word document, a task which was interrupted halfway when two of my teachers, Sue and Mary, arrived for a visit. A nice interruption indeed.

We all had a bit of a chat in the lobby, including about the dismissed motion to rebrand CILIP – which I had heard was partly about concern over spending the budget on something frivolous, but which when discussed in the lobby was mainly about concerns over losing identity as a profession. None of the proposed rebrandings included the word librarian in the title.

Louise then took Sue and Mary on a tour while I went back up to finish the prep on my notes. This only took a little while, and I picked up some more missing item forms from Lynn’s desk to have a look at. That morning she had needed to get a trolley to move all the books I ordered on Friday, and said I had the magic touch. No such luck with this batch, as half of the items were not in the system. Presumably this was because they had been deleted from the catalogue when confirmed missing, and the notation hadn’t made it to the paperwork.

The five of us (Mary, Louise, Lynn, Sue and I) had a cup of tea and a chat in the cafeteria about all sorts of things- and then it was time for lunch, after which Lynn took me to the seminar room to prepare for my talk.

The room was locked and had a bar across the door which had to be lifted up and removed. Pretty fancy in my book. It was a bit dark inside actually, which I think is intentional so the light from the window facing the open inner areas of the library didn’t overwhelm the projected presentation.

Lynn had to hunt down a lectern for me, so I had somewhere to put my notes without fumbling (too much) and somewhere to hide! Before too long, people started arriving, only about a third of which I think I had met.

The presentation itself felt really rocky; especially in the beginning when I was so nervous my voice was shaking a bit. I got into the swing of it, but was never fully comfortable. Fortunately, by all accounts the presentation was really well received. I thought perhaps I was running under time and slowed down however I ended up taking just over half an hour, so it’s a good thing nerves were making me speak fast in the beginning otherwise everyone would have been late for the afternoon presentation we were going to.

I got a few laughs in the beginning, which was good, and though a few people closed their eyes (concentrating, I like to think) we had a bit of a lively question session after Lynn broke the ice with the first query. To say I was pretty relieved to have it all over would be a massive understatement.

The presentation in the afternoon was a little interesting, but technology failed during the demonstration. It was about a resource the library had subscribed and contributed to which produced little anthologies or packages of digitised content. Curators would work to select important items for a certain subject, and the selections are displayed in a module. In this fashion, patrons are saved from having to hunt and sort through masses of digitised material, and this makes BiblioLabs a great starting place for research. They have several different modules, including a new dissertation section, and an emerging artist section, however they all work on this same (very visual) principle. It was just an introduction for staff, for when the program goes more live.

Afterward Lynn and I had a chat, and she asked whether I was getting everything I wanted to out of the placement. We also talked about my presentation, which she said was really good, but I felt could have used smoother transitions between slides, and a more rounded conclusion. However, the presentation has been generally well received which is great. I felt like a bit of a fraud at first, especially tackling what felt like such an un-academic topic, but the interest was genuine and I felt by the end that maybe I actually taught my fellows something new.

]]>https://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/british-library-day-twelve-presentation-day/feed/0staraiceBritish Library Day Eleven: Humanitieshttps://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/british-library-day-eleven-humanities/
https://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/british-library-day-eleven-humanities/#respondTue, 13 May 2014 07:45:54 +0000http://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/?p=281Continue reading →]]>I apologise for taking so long to post these. Only four more posts after this one, and I promise to have them up soon. I really want to finish posting them before it’s a year since my placement occurred.

08/07/2013

I spent the morning with Rod and Adrian on the Humanities reference desk today. It is one of the bigger and busier reading rooms in the library, covering everything from general reference works to history, philosophy and literature works. It is also one of the reading rooms which employs Dewey. The British Library used to run the library of the UK Library Association and the humanities reading room now holds a fairly large library and information services section. This is Adrian’s baby, and I made sure to go up and have a look at it before I went to lunch. It certainly made me remember that I am supposed to be rethinking my topic for Professional Project in my free time but I am no closer to coming up with an alternative query.

Physically, Humanities is set up a little differently from other reading rooms, with the reference desk directly opposite and fairly close to the issue and return desks. This can be a little confusing for readers when they first enter, but also makes that area feel a little squashed (just a little). This design does however mean more room for seats, and shelves.

The humanities reading room also still uses table numbers as reference issuing books, so they know where readers are in case something is amiss later. The old ordering system used to do this by having the table number included on the item request, and turning on a little light at the desk so the reader knew when their item was ready for pick up. Pretty nifty, but I suppose it wasn’t as cool as it seems because they did get rid of it in the end.

Most of the queries I observed were to do with upgrading accounts, WiFi issues, and ordering assistance. The WiFi of course is handled by an outside company, and the patrons were given a phone to ask their support team for help. Sometimes this didn’t work and the reference team had to soothe the reader.

One patron was asking about newspapers, and while the humanities room has some digital subscriptions, they ended up having to direct the patron to Colindale. Another reader was after an item which the library didn’t have, and so Adrian checked Copac, which is similar to WorldCat or Trove, and contains the holdings of many of the larger academic libraries in the UK. Luckily, one of the universities did have the item in question, and it was convenient for the reader to visit there as he had a lending card.

One thing which did come up a couple of times, and for the first time I had seen, was an issue with ordering on the catalogue whereby journals or multi-volume monographs had not been enabled to be ordered in parts on the system. This means that the reader can only order the whole range, which will be denied in the basement, as they will not send up hundreds of journals at a time. Luckily it only took a quick call (presumably because the metadata was already there) to what I later found out was the electronic services team to fix the issue.

As always, we chatted about a range of things, including the sorts of qualifications people have (a huge range, and not nearly all library qualifications). I tend to ask whatever pops in my head when it is quiet, so we also discussed the first aid requirements of the organisation. It turned out there was no specific requirement for staff at any level to have first aid training, but that the library does like to have one volunteer in each geographical area of the library, and encourages people to train.It wasn’t too long before my time was up, though I had stayed until the end of the morning shift.

During and after lunch I had time to work on my presentation. Lynn had left the library while I was out, and when my headache from the day before returned accompanied by wooziness I left early, but wrote a note to leave on her desk. I wanted to tell someone, but the office was pretty empty, and having only crossed paths with Louise briefly I wasn’t sure I’d actually be talking to her not someone else when I went over there. The perils of meeting too many people at once!

The meeting I was supposed to attend in the morning had been cancelled or rescheduled, and so I did a bit of ordering for Lynn in the morning in between sessions working on my presentation. Lynn is slowly trying to track down some books which have gone missing. During some office spring cleaning, a box was found with many ‘missing item’ forms which had never been followed up. This box was from before the move into the St Pancras building, and some of the forms date back to 1985.

Lynn will check the catalogue is correct, order the books where possible and get items deleted out of the system if they really are missing. To that end, I took some of the sheets and found the items in the catalogue where possible, ordering them up to arrive for Lynn at the reading room in 2 days. There were three or four items I couldn’t order: two because they wasn’t in the system (or at least not the version wanted), and the others essentially because there wasn’t enough detail on the form to determine which of several editions or years was required.

After lunch, I spent some time down in the BIPC with Sally-Ann and Zed, and after the shift change Gale and Tony. The Business and Intellectual Property Centre is set apart in a lot of ways from the rest of the library, and its clientele is a lot different to the rest, with more business and entrepreneurial ‘customers’ than academics and students.

The people coming to the BIPC are setting up small businesses, or researching patents, or doing market research etc. Most of the resources are databases, many of which are unavailable elsewhere as the BIPC holds the biggest collection of business databases in the UK. This is the only reading room which allows downloading, but it is as agreed upon with the database vendors, so there are different rules for each one. This can be confusing for the clients and they sometimes get upset.

The basic collection elements are as follows: small business help; database journals (with the print version falling behind as it is from legal deposit and slowly databases are stopping print runs); directories, market research; intellectual property law; trade journals; and historical patent forms dating back as far as the 1500s.

I had a bit of tour, including the meeting rooms, where the centre hosts one-on-one sessions with clients – mostly to help them figure out the resources, but sometimes with more expert advice. They also have a meeting room where they conduct business workshops, and that space is also used by outside parties to host workshops as well.

The centre was pretty quiet while I was there, apart from some procedural and download queries (they have to log each download as well to make sure people aren’t breaking the copyright limits set) we were just chatting. Sally-Ann who showed me around is one of the newer members to the BL, so has a lot of ideas about changing things to improve accessibility. She is also dyslexic, and I mentioned that Paul would have liked to have seen the talk she did. She laughed and said he had come, and they were working together with another woman on an accessibility project. One aspect of this is redesigning the subject guides so they follow procedural steps rather than alphabetical order eg. Small business help before market research

Anyway, one of the unique things which happened during my time with the second shift was when a gentleman ran in all out of breath asking for a download from Frost. This is because the library is only allocated 25 of these reports a month, and it is first come first serve. The reports can be worth ten thousand dollars, so I can see why the man was stressed! Luckily, they had it. I felt bad though because he approached me all out of breath, and I couldn’t get a word in edgewise until he had finished his breathless queries to tell him that I couldn’t help and he’d have to talk to one of the others.

The other thing which sticks out to me about my time in the BIPC was when I was talking to Sally-Ann, and I mentioned my degree, clarifying it as I usually do after the fact as ‘or a library degree’ to which she replied ‘yes, I know, I’ve done one’ and I felt like an absolute idiot. Here’s the thing though, after several years of a blank look and ‘so you do stuff with computers?’ after I say what I am doing, I have learnt to just automatically clarify my degree with an explanation. So, there was a reason for my gaffe, but it didn’t make me feel any less embarrassed, so that’s one mistake I’ll never repeat again.

Sonya Hartnett is well regarded as one of Australia’s literary treasures, so it may come as a surprise to learn that before now I had never been able to finish one of her books. The Midnight Zoo is set in what is probably World War One, though the conflict is never specifically named, and follows two Romany brothers, Andrej and Tomas, as they with their infant sister stumble into a demolished village. Untouched by bombing, the only structure left in the town is a zoo, and the children’s story of loss and uncertainty is soon paralleled by that of the animals they come to befriend.

Much of the story is told through vivid flashbacks, recollections or dream sequences, which somehow seem to ground the work at the same time as emphasising those elements which give it the feel of a modern day fable. The boys’ separation from their parents is especially vivid amongst the backdrop of a zoo full of talking animals.

Hartnett folds the more fantastical elements of the novel into the story seamlessly. The reader doesn’t question the existence of these things, especially in a world which has already been turned upside down, although I do question the wisdom of introducing the ‘horseman of night’ when he doesn’t do anything except interrupt the narration occasionally.

This novel has an incredibly deft touch with prose. The language is smooth, and lyrical and the story simple, yet effective. Though the novel does use some vocabulary which may be tricky for more inexperienced readers, it just begs to be read aloud.

]]>https://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/the-midnight-zoo-sonya-hartnett/feed/0staraiceAirman – Eoin Colferhttps://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/airman-eoin-colfer/
https://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/airman-eoin-colfer/#respondSun, 23 Feb 2014 11:17:04 +0000http://firebreathingmonsters.wordpress.com/?p=270Continue reading →]]>So during my last semester at university I decided to do a class on recreational literature for young people. One of the major assignment was to keep a reading journal of ten young adult/children’s books. They list of books had to have been published 2008 or later unless permission was granted, and I needed to have some internal theme or guideline to what I was picking. I decided I wanted to read books with boy protagonists, as I felt I hadn’t read many in a while. I’ll be posting the small reviews in dribs and drabs, but here is the first*: ‘Airman’ by Eoin Colfer.

Eoin Colfer’s ‘Count of Monte Cristo’-like offering is as different from his famed Artemis Fowl series as chalk is to cheese. Set at the turn of the 20th century, in the middle of man’s race to flight, the novel follows young Conor Broekhart. Raised alongside the Princess of the tiny island sovereignty he lives in, Conor and his tutor are obsessed with cracking the secret to machine powered flight. This idyllic life is shattered completely when the King is murdered, and Conor framed for the crime. Sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious island prison and diamond mine of Little Saltee, the only way Conor can survive is by dreaming of his escape, and planning his first flight.

It took me a few pages to adjust to the language in the novel, which has an authentic, almost formal feel to correspond with the time it is set. Colfer’s writing also includes some delightfully witty turns of phrase, which provoked a smile even in some of the most dreadful and dire situations.

Our dashing hero is really put through the ringer in this story, and yet his cleverness and tenacity make the reader love him even more. Conor is a nuanced and carefully fleshed out character, and though he doesn’t always make the right decisions you really ache for him to win, even if winning means running away. Even the criminals of the piece are well drawn, and perhaps could have gotten away with their crimes had they not been blind to their own fatal flaws.

Perhaps this book is appropriate for more experienced readers than its placement in the junior (younger children) section of the library would suggest, due to the complicated vocabulary and frankly grim prison scenes, however I could see a precocious younger reader enjoying the book as well.

I really could not be more impressed with this book if I tried, especially given it was an impulse read.

*The first as listed in my diary, but I arranged them alphabetically and now can’t remember what order I actually read the books in.